Here’s the best heavy rust dissolver for smaller parts like nuts and bolts that you’re probably not aware of and is probably in your kitchen.

[BlazerBill]

I try to use less chemically harsh solutions for dissolving heavy rust and old paint through soaking parts like nuts and bolts and I’ve tried darn near every rust neutralizer and acid chemicals on the market that are also harder to dispose and of course have used diesel fuel. Several years ago, I poured 10% common Vinegar into a rusty 1980’s motorcycle gas tank and after about a week, all the rust was gone. Well, I recently saw 80% strength vinegar on Amazon. Lower % strengths are also available. I ordered the 80% to see what it would do so I soaked some very heavily rusted bolts and washers. The washers were solidly rusted onto the bolts. I also soaked some other old heavily painted over bolts. I soaked them all in the vinegar for a whole week and to my amazement the rust was 95% dissolved and the old paint was loosened. With additional very light hand wire brushing all the loose corrosion and paint was removed. Before, soaking them I had even tried powered wire wheel brushing (which is a PITA and can literally be painful) with no significant removal of the heavier rust under the loose surface rust. This 80% vinegar is serious stuff and the smell will knock your socks off and be damn sure to use goggles and heavy rubber gloves. Vinegar is the next best method without having a media blaster or a parts tumbler or solvent tank for smaller parts. The vinegar even removed the rust in the rust pits. See pics attached. I didn’t think it would work to remove this level of rust so I didn’t take before pics but took the after soaking pics and after light hand wire brushing and water rinse to remove the gunk. You could try to spray it onto vertical surfaces like with Fast Etch but of course it won’t stay on very well. Keep in mind the vinegar was clear colored before soaking the rusty parts.

 

[78C10BigTen]

I use vinegar for my gun restoration projects but you cant use it on bluing because itll eat it off. Works very well for removing rust and helping loosen stuck parts.

 

[78C10BigTen]

Heres some results ive had... this gun was literally pulled from a dirt driveway in a mud puddle. It was rusted solid and unrecognizable.

Before:

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After:

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[Edelbrock]

I agree, Vinegar is a great cleaner. From my understanding, many good cleaners are acidic. The only thing I have found that works better than vinegar is battery acid, which can be used in much fewer situations and is far more hazardous to work with.

On a side note:

- Short version: Vinegar is a deodorizer/neutralizer.

- Long version:

I did find one very strange thing about vinegar. For something that smells so bad, its an excellent deodorizer / neutralizer. For example: I took an entire household of stuff and put it in a huge shop. All this stuff had been subjected to heavy cigarette smoke for many years. Two people chain smoking and they never opened the windows. A lot of the stuff had a "tacky" feel to it, and everything was slightly brown. Needless to say, it all REEKED of cigarette smoke. Walking into the shop was like a punch in the face of odor. If I took an item from the shop and brought it into the house, it would stink up that corner of the room - so I had to send the items back to the shop. I tried leaving the main shop door open for days with fans running, which did not help at all. So after Googling the problem, I wound up putting a cereal bowl of vinegar in the corner of the shop to solve the odor problem. Needless to say I was very skeptical. I figured that I would just be covering up the cigarette smell with something that smelled worse. So after a couple days, I went back into the shop to get some tools. Did the repair I was working on and then went back to the shop and put the tools away. After leaving the shop, I realized that I had not smelled smoke at all. I went back into the shop, and sure enough- the cigarette smell was gone! I took an item out of the shop and gave it a whiff - just the slightest smell of smoke, but it was very very faint. I checked the bowl of vinegar and it was strangely completely empty?? So I refilled the bowl just for good measure. I had some of the items stored at a different location, so I went there and that stuff still reeked of smoke. So I put a bowl of vinegar with that stuff, and sure as **** it worked! I have no idea how vinegar could not only eliminate the odor in the air, but also neutralize the source of the smell. Does the vinegar evaporate, and then stick to the source of the stink? I don't know - but it sure works great. So if you have a room that smells bad, just put a bowl of vinegar in there and apparently it somehow solves the problem. I would not have believed it if I had not seen it with... Uh.. if I had not smelled it with my own nose... And then not smelled it with my own nose.

 

[HotRodPC]

I know a buy who says he uses Vinegar in one of those HF sonic parts washers. I've seen a few of his items and they are clean as brand new.

 

[Ricko1966]

Citric acid works better than vinegar. Used in canning and soda pop etc. But you can buy it cheap online I just buy it at Walmart. Do your own research,but I think once you try citric acid,you won't use vinegar anymore. Not that vinegar is bad,just citric acid works better and is more versatile.